Glasgow 488 restoration update

Not a lot has been written about the progress on the restoration of tramcar Glasgow 488 at the Boston Lodge railway works in Wales, for eventual operation at the East Anglia Transport Museum, on this website for some time - mainly because work had slowed down considerably. However, with the lower deck largely complete, the top deck of the Glasgow 'Standard' car has now appeared in their body shop for stripping.

Currently being worked on as time allows between other more urgent jobs, the upper deck has had a number of panels and windows removed, along with the side body mouldings. The opening window units have also had their remaining paint scraped off, and paint is being stripped from the interior including the ornate ceiling - no easy task! Finally, yet more paint has been removed from the ventilator covers which will soon be ready for repainting.

Meanwhile at East Anglia, 488's truck is also under attention and it is pleasing to report that only one of the numerous bolts has had to be discarded, in spite of many years of accumulated rust which took a great many hours to assess! One axle has been removed for examination and appears to be in remarkably good condition, as do the tyres which are in high profile and seem to have hardly been used. Some thought had been given to exchanging the axles on this truck with those from the museum's ex-Glasgow accommodation truck, but this proved to be incompatible and so these positive findings have come as a great relief.

It has, however, been realised that one of 488's axle boxes differs from the other three! The Tramway Museum Society have kindly offered to help here by checking if they have a suitable spare amongst their veritable treasure trove of Glasgow tram parts. This is another great example of the various different preservation groups helping each other, and hopefully this will be another step towards getting this remarkable survivor up and running again in the not too distant future.

Glasgow 488 Comes Home

One of the more intriguing tram restoration developments now underway is the return to operation of Glasgow Standard Car 488 from its long sojourn in Paris following withdrawal in 1962. It is seen here prior to being transferred from Coplawhill Workshops in Glasgow to its then new residence at the St Mande museum courtesy of French transport enthusiasts.

Number 488 is one of six examples of the thousand strong class of Glasgow's standard type 'caurs' still in existence. It is also the only Standard retaining familiar GCT colours which were a hallmark on the city's streets.

It is therefore particularly inspiring that 488 is going to reappear in these same fleet colours when its restoration to working condition is complete. All of the other examples have been given fleet liveries from earlier periods of the 20th Century. During my time in France, I visited the St Mande transport museum collection on a number of occasions. Regrettably the museum later closed its doors due to redevelopment plans for the site and has not (so far) been reconstituted elsewhere. Paris was noteworthy for extensive operation of double deck trams in early years, with both steam, compressed air, conduit and subsequently overhead trolleypole operation of fully enclosed types.

Regrettably no original Paris examples were preserved and as a fall back option the French group finally secured a Glasgow Standard car to fit that gap. With the museum's closure 488's survival became moot and into this void has stepped the admirable East Anglia Transport Museum. The Carlton Colville collection at one time had the experience of housing a Glasgow car in the form of a Coronation car privately owned. This subsequently came to Rigby Road for interim storage and thence onward north to the Summerlee Museum near Coatbridge where it is currently being worked on to enable operation on that Museum's short line. It will be the only operating example of its type when completed. Crich, Glasgow and Seashore all have a Coronation MKI tram but these are all on static display - although the Crich car 1282 did operate extensively for many years after a full rebuilding in the 1980s.

One other Glasgow Standard 'caur' remains still exiled and out of public view - in this case held by the Science Museum at their reserve store near Swindon.

Glasgow 488 when it stood alongside French trams at St Mande. In this case its companion is an excellent example from the long-lasting Lille interurban line running east from that city to the border with Belgium. Number 213 is a rare example of a modern French designed and built tram which performed admirably on the reserved track fast running line into Lille, but which sadly was not copied by other French tram systems. Its classic lines reflect distinctive styling from the late 1930s. Both images by John Woodman.

Glasgow 488 at Porthmadog Harbour Station

Walking though the streets of Porthmadog is interesting at any time, but there are times when it's difficult to believe your eyes - a tram pass through the town! Glasgow Tram No.488 is part way through restoration in Festinog Railway's Boston Lodge workshops.

Split into its two sections while work is carried out, these photographs show the lower deck being transported from the Carriage Works - for storage in covered accommodation at Minffordd Yard.

Added by the webmaster to the three pictures from the Community Facebook page, is an actual picture of 488 being stored in covered accomodation at Minffordd Yard.

Glasgow 488's top deck arrives at EATM

All parts of Glasgow 488 have now been reunited in the same county (and country!) once more after the unrestored top deck was transported from Wales arriving at the East Anglia Transport Museum on Thursday 24th March. The lower deck and truck are already in Suffolk - although off-site where work on overhauling the truck is underway - and all three parts will be reunited together in due course although work remains to be done on restoring the upper deck before this work can be considered.

Now owned by the East Anglia Transport Museum, Glasgow 488 has now been back in the UK for nine years having made the trip - top and lower decks separated - from France in March 2013. It had been preserved in Paris following withdrawal in Glasgow in 1961 although spent some time in storage when in France and was deemed surplus to requirements by the Paris Transport Museum which is when repatriation and restoration for use at the EATM came in.

The Ffestiniog Railway in Wales were contracted to complete the restoration of the tram but whilst progress was made on the lower deck, the upper deck remained in the same condition as it was when it arrived. Restoration work on it is now to take place in Suffolk and to enable this to happen it was transported across the country to Carlton Colville with its arrival at is new home being on Thursday, 24th March 2022. The upper deck structure is not all in one piece as one end was dismantled back when it was moved to Paris, the parts of this section are still in existence and were transported separately to the remainder of the upper deck.

The lower deck - which had been restored at the Ffestiniog Railway - was moved from Wales to Suffolk back in August 2021 and it is being stored securely off-site awaiting both the upper deck and a restored truck. The truck continues to be overhauled at the moment.

All three parts will come together in due course with all remaining work to take place at Lowestoft. There are no timescales for when the full restoration will be completed but all good things come to those who wait anyway don't they?

Web sites where these stories originally appeared

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